Breakaway ropers bring the heat at Red Rock Park

RED ROCK PARK

In a fitting finale, Louisiana cowgirl Bailey Mudd and New Mexico’s Kadin Jodie delivered plenty of excitement on Saturday night.

The two breakaway ropers turned in a pair of outstanding runs in the short round at the Best of the Best Timed Events Rodeo at Red Rock Park.

Mudd won the average race by a mere six-hundredth of a second as both cowgirls put on a roping clinic to close out the four-day rodeo.

Mudd roped three draws in 6.98 seconds ahead of Jodie (7.04) and Texas cowgirl Emilee Charlesworth (7.2).

In the championship round, Mudd roped her calf in 1.82 seconds while Jodie stopped the clock in 1.92 seconds.

“I told my dad that I wanted to be a 2.5 but I shocked myself with the way I caught,” Mudd said. “I stretched the barrier as far as I could so I knew it was going to be pretty close.”

Despite setting the pace, the Louisiana cowgirl acknowledged that winning the aggregate race was far from over.

“I knew the girl coming up behind me from New Mexico was going to bring the heat,” Mudd said of Jodie. “I’ve roped against her since we were younger so I had to put the pressure on her. I knew she was going to come out swinging so I did what I needed to do because it was so close.”

After she completed her run, Mudd waited patiently at the end of the arena for Jodie to rope her final calf.

“I wanted to be the first person to congratulate her because she roped outstanding all week,” Mudd said of her chief rival.

Admittedly, Jodie felt inspired to match the effort turned in by Mudd.

“I knew that she was fast so I just wanted to get out good and rope him right there too,” Jodie said of her draw.

“She gave me the confidence to where I felt like could do it too,” she said.

With that sub-two second run, the soon-to-be Crownpoint High junior hit a new personal best.

Her previous best was a 2.1 effort she turned in during the state finals in the New Mexico High School Rodeo Association.

“I’ve never thrown a one-second run so I was pretty excited about that,” she said. “I hope to keep roping my claves and keep it going.”

In her previous two runs last week, the Crownpoint High cowgirl turned in 2.75 effort in the first round and she followed that up with a 2.37 try in the second.

As for the competition, Jodie said the field of ropers that were entered were on top of their game so she felt the need to step it up a notch.

“I’ve seen them at the jackpots so I knew that I had to rope good,” she said.

Like her rival, Mudd said the competition was fierce.

“These girls do not make my job any easy under any circumstances,” she said. “A lot of ropers know that you got to be fast and breakaway is just getting faster and faster.”

In her first two rounds, Mudd earned a first-place check in the opening round with a 2.05 run and in the second she finished with a 3.11 effort.

“I had to ride my horse out because I knew that calf was going to peel off to the left,” she said. “When they do that you to ride up and take an extra swing if you want to secure it.”

With it being her last high school rodeo, Mudd is headed to McNeese State University in the fall on a rodeo and academic scholarship.

“I want to make the college finals but it’s going to be hard,” she said. “I’m going to one of the toughest regions but this is a huge confidence booster.”

Jodie, meanwhile, is looking to win another high school title having won that title this past spring as a sophomore.

“I want to win another state title,” she said. “I want to win a national title and I want to do good at the INFR.”

Earlier this month, Jodie punched her ticket to the INFR by splitting first-place with Gilbert, Arizona, cowgirl Danielle Lowman in Okmulgee, Oklahoma. Both cowgirls turned identical 2.16 runs.

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